Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has died, according to state media. A sharp-tongued and impatient reformer, Zhu helped transform China from a beleaguered hold-out against the collapse of Soviet-style Communism in the early 1990s into an emerging superpower.
During his tenure as vice premier and later as premier beginning in 1998, he sought to transition China toward a more global market-oriented financial system and Western market principles without ceding party control over the economy. His efforts to breathe new life into the state-directed economy included privatizing urban housing to promote home ownership and pushing through reforms at state-owned companies that cost tens of millions of workers their jobs.
Zhu helped transform China into the world’s leading manufacturing power and steered the country into the World Trade Organization in 2002. He is remembered for coaxing and cajoling China's way into the organization through grueling negotiations.